Broken Wings Only Mean Trouble
by PrimalTime
Summary: After the Lylat Wars, everything is peaceful. However, when the Star Wolf team is hired to assist on a shady trade in Sector Y, things take an interesting turn of events as they find something unexpected. Rated M in case it's needed for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1: Lost and Found

**AN: Greetings! PrimalTime here.**

 **While I'm not new to writing FanFiction, as I have written a story previously (even though I deleted it due to me not being happy with how it came out), this is the first story that I'm writing seriously, with proper planning, so I hope you enjoy it!**

 **I don't have a set schedule on chapter releases, but I'll try to update as soon as I can. Since it's summer, I'll have a lot of free time to work on the story(what are friends, amirite). I'll try to update at least once a week, but forgive me if I miss the deadline by a few days, or even if I end up posting more often.**

 **Feel free to leave as many reviews that criticize the hell out of this story, because it would help me improve considerably, which is something I'd really like!**

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These kinds of missions were, without a doubt, the ones Wolf hated the most. There weren't any real dangers nor dogfights that could give him the rush of adrenaline he needed; they were simply tasked to provide assistance during an exchange of goods between two companies. Even though he normally refused these operations, he was left with no choice because of the lack of income they had to go through the previous month; a sudden drop in the amount of missions making them desperate for money.

And that's why the new Star Wolf team was looking around for any incoming trouble in Sector Y, flying in their rebuilt Wolfens. Even though they were currently down to three members (as Andrew Oikonny and Pigma Dengar had been removed and Panther Caroso had taken their place), the team was shining brighter than ever: all three of them had exceptional piloting skills and unmatched coordination. Bored out of his mind, Wolf O'Donnell (leader of their mercenary group) opened their private communication system, searching for a distraction.

"Panther and Leon," he started, "can both of you receive me properly?"

"Loud and clear, Lord O'Donnell." Panther's voice answered first, his feline form appearing through the communicator screen.

"Yes, Captain." Leon's soft voice followed right after, "Does something bother you?"

"Yes, this mission does." He grunted before continuing, "There's nothing interesting going on. Just a plain old business trade."

"As much as I'd love for..." Leon paused for a brief moment to think of what to add, "something to happen, we really need the money, Captain... After all, the Wolfens' repairs costed us a bit more than what we could afford."

"He's right. Furthermore, since the Lylat Wars ended, the amount of jobs that require dogfighting has gone down considerably due to the lack of conflict." The large feline added.

Wolf knew they were right; the Lylat Wars had caused unimaginable destruction, which made military funding for each planet go down. This caused brought conflict to a halt, as repairing, maintaining and fueling the ships was too costly for planets that had taken part in the war. This even affected his own team: because of the repairs of the Wolfens, they couldn't afford to damage them too much until they got enough money, which is why they were forced to take these easier missions. They payed well, but failed to excite Wolf as much as the fights he got used to during the wars when he worked for Andross.

"Even so..." Panther ended the silence once again, causing Wolf to look at the communicator screen, "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Weird? What's weird, Caroso?" Wolf asked, confused by the panther's words.

"This mission." The feline said, moving his eyes towards the two ships where exchange was happening, "I'd understand if we were the only ones who had been hired, but that's not the case: both companies hired a team of mercenaries each. Wouldn't one team suffice to protect both of them from external danger?"

"They probably didn't trust each other, so they each hired different mercenaries in case the other company betrayed them." Leon deduced, "It's difficult to trust anyone these days. Pigma is a perfect example of that."

"Powalski is right on that. It's not too strange for things like these to happen. Although, now that you have brought this to my attention..." Wolf paused, thinking about the situation at hand, "It is weird that, in the case they doubted each other, they'd perform the exchange in an isolated place like Sector Y."

In fact, if he really thought about it, it made no sense at all. Not only was the place they chose dangerous due to the mechanical rubbish floating around the area, but they also would have been safer in a protected planet like Corneria. That way they wouldn't have to worry about pirates and, by extension, they wouldn't have had to spend money on hiring mercenaries. Something about the operation didn't feel right to Wolf.

"We'll have to ask him when he contacts us back. If there is something going under our noses, I'm not going to let that old man put us in even more trouble." Wolf said to the other members of the team.

"I swear, if they were lying to us I'll break their goddamn neck myself." Leon said, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

As soon as Leon finished that threat, Wolf received a request to open a communication channel, which he immediately accepted. As soon as Panther and Leon joined the new communication channel, the voice of their employer was heard.

"Thanks for your assistance, Star Wolf." He said, directing those words to the whole team, "We just completed the trade, so you're now allowed to head back to your station."

"What items were traded?" Wolf said as soon as he finished speaking, his voice low, rough and full of suspicion.

"Is that any of your business?" He replied, narrowing his eyes. "We payed you for your protection, not to get interrogated by you. But, if you really want to know, it was only some materials the other company needed for their products."

As soon as he said those words, he ended the communication abruptly, not letting any of the Star Wolf members reply. This infuriated Wolf; even though he had asked his employer for information about the exchange, he'd only given him really vague information. Instead of clearing his initial question, he was left with another doubt on his mind on top of the ones he already had: w _hat was traded inside those ships_? Try as he might, without any evidence nor leads that he could follow, that question would remain unanswered.

"Let's get moving." Wolf told his crew with a rough voice, "We should head back to Sargasso soon, because I need a fucking drink."

Panther smirked at the anger in his captain's words.

"I think we've got some nice drinks back at the Space Zone." He said before quickly resuming his sentence, "Can't get the suspicion out of your head now, can you?"

"He certainly has got a reason to be worried about that, cat." Leon said, rolling his eyes, "What if it was a trap set out for us? Did you see how quickly he closed the communication channel after completely avoiding our questions? Something's seriously fishy."

"We'll start looking into and discuss this whole ordeal tomorrow. We all think- No, we all _know_ there was something off with that trade, so we'll have to get to the bottom of this mess." Wolf said with a tone of finality in his voice, "For now though, let's enjoy the rest of the day at the bar in the Space Zone. Fucking hell, I need to get wasted to get rid of this anger."

"At our current pace, we should arrive in two hours, Lord O'Donnell." The feline said after a few seconds of calculations.

Sector Y was a silent place; mechanical waste covered the area completely. While he'd never personally been in this part of the Lylat System to fight in the war, the remnants of older aircraft showed perfectly how many battles occurred here. He personally preferred Meteo, where the Sargasso Space Zone was located in, as it wasn't nearly as dangerous. The great amounts of magnetic and radiation energy in the area made it impossible for ships to go through the sector without a shield that could neutralize it.

Currently, the area was home to several broken aircraft from Corneria's main battle fleet and pieces that originally belonged to Venomian robots. He could even recognize a few of the aircraft in front of him: the remains of the Saruzin Venomian flagship, some Cornerian Fighters, an Arwing...

"Wait, that can't be right." Wolf said, inching closer to the immobile Arwing floating near him.

Arwings were ships that only members of the Star Fox team used, as they were personally built for them, so it made no sense that one of them was in space, among the other broken aircraft. Furthermore, as he approached it, he noticed the wings of the spacecraft were missing, which meant it was completely disabled.

"What can't be right, Wolf?" Leon asked through the communication channel, unable to see the aircraft.

"Lord O'Donnell, have you found something?" Panther followed.

"I think it's better if you both come and see this yourselves." Wolf said with a low voice as he got close enough to see who the person inside the ship was. An unconscious and defenseless Fox McCloud lay in the Arwing.

Both of O'Donnell's teammates nodded, confused, and approached their leader's position. Their reaction upon seeing the Arwing with no wings was different, but carried the same feeling of surprise: Panther gasped and Leon clicked his tongue.

The fur in Fox's arms and legs was slightly burnt, meaning he probably had been knocked out by aircraft lasers, and the fur below his eyes was moist, indicating he'd been crying. However, he could see his chest occasionally rise up and down; he was alive, only unconscious.

"Leave him there. He'll die without anyone to help him." Leon said coldly, turning around his ship in the process.

"I mean, we could at least take the Arwing. It could allow us to decipher their communication channels or inspect their gear. Just imagine how useful-" Panther started, before he was cut off by Wolf.

"There's something in his hands."

Wolf inched closer to the on his Wolfen glass, trying to look at the piece of paper the vulpine was holding tightly. It looked as if it had been ripped of from a different paper, and he could only figure out a few words as the paper was too burned to make out anything else. However, those words he read were enough: _investigate the illegal trade._

"He was investigating the trade we assisted with today." Wolf murmured.

"What?!" Leon, shocked, yelled through the communicator.

"Apparently it was an illegal trade. The rest of the piece of paper is too damaged to read, so I don't know anything else." He added after Leon's deafening yell, punching his communicator screen in the progress with incredible force. "Ugh, I knew it! They fucking lied to us!"

"Lord O'Donnell, I believe we should take him with us. If he knows something that we don't, it would greatly benefit us." Panther suggested.

Wolf stayed silent, considering the feline's words: If they left Fox there or killed him themselves, it would take away one of the many troubles they had; the Star Fox team. However, he had information they wanted desperately: he needed to know what illegal thing was traded in that operations, as to know what they were dealing with. If they had been informed beforehand something illegal was going to be done, he would have declined the mission, as he couldn't afford to get into even more trouble with Corneria right then, when they finally stopped bugging the Star Wolf team.

"Panther, Leon..." He started as he took a deep breath, "We're bringing him with us. We need any leads to stop that motherfucker."

"No way we're bringing that useless kid with us! Are you out of your goddamn-"

"I'll say it one more time, we're bringing him with us. I want to personally take care of the idiot who lied to us, and to do that I need whatever clues this fox has, no matter how much I'd love to blow up his damn brains right now." The leader interrupted Leon with a serious and strong tone, "Am I CLEAR?"

Panther silently nodded, agreeing with his leader's choice, as he turned around to start heading towards Sargasso. Meanwhile, Wolf activated the outer shield of his aircraft as he reached for Fox's neck, allowing the air to be kept inside so he wouldn't face any danger.

"...Yes, captain." Leon murmured, not wanting to anger Wolf any more than he already was, as that would only give him trouble.

"Good." Wolf huffed as he roughly dropped Fox in the space behind his seat, "Well then, let's go."


	2. Chapter 2: Decline and Growth

****AN: Greetings! PrimalTime here again!****

 ** **First of all, wow. I didn't expect so many of you to review the story, and I'm really thankful to you all! You provided me with helpful advice: Showing vs Telling, an issue with me repeating some words, some problems with my presentation of the premise...****

 ** **Also, DoggoWoof pointed out the fact that it would have been impossible for Wolf to grab Fox in space, a mistake I've fixed with an update to that part (it's only one line, no need to go back to read it since it adds nothing new): Star Fox 2 introduced an outer shield mechanic that I've basically used so that Wolf could keep the air around his Wolfen, without any problems. I believe that should fix that problem.****

 ** **All in all, I'm happy because of all the feedback I've gotten, and I hope you find the following chapters interesting as well! I'm currently trying to improve the things you pointed out, so I hope you see some progress in my next chapters.****

 ** **Now, with your permission, I'll shut up and let you read what you came for, haha.****

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The journey back to Sargasso was quiet, except for those brief instances where Panther informed the rest of the team about their current location and the time they had left to get to their destination. Wolf's mind, however, wasn't focused on the empty space that surrounded him; instead, he was deep in thought about the unconscious vulpine laying behind his seat. Every once in a while he would turn around to check whether he awoke or not, but each time he was merely greeted by the same unchanging expression that held a feeling he knew too well: his eyelids were closed tightly together, his neck was slightly turned to avoid whatever was in front of him, the fur under his eyes was damp because of the tears he shed, his clothes had multiple wrinkled parts left by his hands and his lower lip had cuts and dried blood from biting it too harshly. It was an undeniable feeling of _fear_.

That emotion was one he had witnessed and experienced many times: on his enemies, on his teammates and even on himself in his younger days. He eventually learned how to control his own fear because of all the deaths and tragedies that happened around him: the death of his parents, of those he considered friends and the betrayal of others he thought he could trust. His life had been hell, but it had shaped him into who he was.

However, Fox was different to him in that regard: he had been given everything since he was kit. But what annoyed Wolf the most was the fact that those things were provided to him because of James' fame, not because of his rival's own accomplishments. Even when his father died, he had people there to help him get through it. Fox didn't understand what _pain,_ _suffering_ and _fear_ truly meant; he was still only a child who wandered around the Lylat System, thinking he was a hero who could solve whatever problems arose.

So when he looked back at the vulpine's face and saw his expression, a smirk found its way across his face.

"Welcome to the real world, McCloud." Wolf said, looking at the static body of the fox, "Your naivety almost killed you today, _pup_."

As soon as he spat out those words, he turned around again to face the space in front of him, asteroids from Meteo coming into view. The communication screen flashed green and displayed Panther and Leon's faces.

"We're approaching Sargasso Space Zone, Lord O'Donnell." Panther informed, "Proceed with caution, the asteroids are pretty close to each other, so there's not much space to maneuver around them."

"Alright, Caroso." Wolf replied, slowing down his Wolfen.

"So, what are we going to do with..." Leon started, pausing before continuing with a displeased tone, "...him?"

"What do you mean? We'll interrogate him there in the room we always use, as we do with everyone we capture." Wolf explained.

"Really, captain? You'll just go inside the station with _Fox McCloud_ and simply pass by all the criminals that despise him, expecting them to do nothing?" Leon asked rhetorically, remarking his words with strength to point out the absurdity of the proposal, "He'd get killed before we even get a _chance_ to ask him anything."

Wolf clicked his tongue; Leon was right. They had to find a way to sneak him past everyone inside the Space Zone if they wanted to succeed in their objective. It seemed like an impossible task though: everyone in the entire system knew Fox McCloud, he'd be recognized as soon as they took a single step inside the docking area.

"I think I may have the perfect solution for that." Panther interrupted Wolf's thoughts, raising his right hand to reveal the Venomian helmet with black-colored glass he was holding with his gentle hands. "We can use this to completely cover his face. Furthermore, if anyone finds it suspicious, we can simply tell them we're using it so that he didn't find out about Sargasso's exact location."

"Panther, you motherfucking genius." Wolf praised, relieved to see their small inconvenience solved before it became too late.

Right on cue, their destination came into view. Sargasso Space Zone had multiple defensive mechanisms distributed all over the enormous and compact structure, giving it an intimidating aura that kept away enemies and unsuspecting travelers flying near the location. The place the Space Zone hid in, between the asteroids of Meteo, made it an even less appealing place to those who didn't truly want to access it. It was the perfect representation of how a hideout had to be: secure, menacing and hidden.

As soon as they entered the hangar of the Space Zone, they were greeted with the sight of various individuals rushing into the darker and grittier areas of the structure's interior. The people inside observed those surrounding them out of precaution, but also with the intention of finding someone who could use their services: infiltration, murder, thievery, falsification... Business you couldn't find anywhere else.

"Panther, bring the helmet to my aircraft." Wolf said as he unbuckled his security belt.

"I'm on it, captain." Panther said, raising the glass above him to allow himself to leave the aircraft and strut towards his leader.

Leon did the same, strolling until he got to Wolf's ship. Panther raised the piece of gear in front of him, letting O'Donnell reach it and put it on Fox's head.

"There we go." He said once he finished.

He let McCloud's body plummet down from his Wolfen, Panther being barely able to catch him. The dark lens covering Fox's face and the slightly burned and wrinkled clothes he wore made him unrecognizable to an outsider. They started passing by everyone on the docking area, who looked for a brief instance at Wolf before averting their gaze from him. No one stood in Star Wolf's way as they walked through them.

"We're lucky no one is focusing on our little captive." Leon grunted as he looked around.

"I told you my plan would work, _lizard_." Panther taunted his teammate.

"I'm still not too fond of having our biggest threat in our hideout, _cat_." Leon taunted back, rolling his eyes towards Fox, whose figure lied on Panther's arms.

"Really? Our biggest threat?" Panther snickered, "He's _unconscious_. What's he going to do? Murmur in his sleep?"

"Even if he woke up, he's no match for us when it comes to fights on land. We outnumber him, and any of us is strong enough to hold him down." Wolf added.

Leon opened his mouth to disagree, but when he found himself with no reply, he closed it and huffed in annoyance.

As they walked through the metallic hallways of Sargasso, the only sound they could hear was the one caused by their own footsteps, with occasional whispers from the others on the Space Zone joining in. After walking for a while, they reached the end of the most remote passage from the hangar, where a tall and sturdy red door stood. The gate hid the room where Wolf spent the majority of his time on the structure and kept some of his important documents. Multiple indentations and dried-up bloodstains covered the door, from people who had tried to break in before with brute force; only further proving the resistance the entrance provided.

Wolf approached the dual screen device on the wall to the right of the door. He placed his hand in front of the screen on top, which flashed a bright blue as soon as it recognized his fingerprints, and input a password on the digital keyboard located on the lower screen. After a few seconds, both screens flashed green and a short high-pitched beep confirmed both inputs had been correct. He looked back at Panther and Leon, who had already begun to enter the dark and cold room in front of them.

Instead of completely lighting up the room, Wolf turned on exclusively the center light of the room, which focused directly on a rusty and used metal table. Panther placed Fox on top of the table roughly, while Leon got ready to restrain him with the sturdy handcuffs they kept on top of a chair. Once everything was ready, Wolf opened the drawer on one of the sides of the table while Panther removed the helmet from McCloud's face.

"What are you looking for, boss?" Leon asked, taking a peek at what Wolf did.

"Smelling salts. I don't want to waste any of my precious time waiting for him to regain consciousness." He said, grabbing a small bottle of ammonia.

He opened the container and approached it to Fox's snout, whose eyes started clenching as soon as the odor invaded his body. Soon enough, he started coughing and gasping for air as his eyes opened widely, staring at the intense light on top of him burning his eyes. His back arched reflexively because of the pain in his lungs, although he could not go too far due to his state of restraint.

"Well, well... Look who finally woke up." Wolf was the first to speak, chuckling at Fox's attempts to escape from the table.

"S-Star Wolf?" Fox stuttered as he comprehended who his captors were. He looked to the side, the figures of Panther, Leon and Wolf standing firmly by his side, before yelling. "Let me g-!"

Wolf pressed his paw onto Fox's mouth, muffling the sounds he made, whose eyes widened and body tensed in response. Wolf's narrowed eyes and cold glare were enough to freeze the bound pilot on the spot.

"If you know what's best for you, you'll shut up and fucking behave." He asserted. "Do you understand?"

Fox nodded after a pause, realizing he'd have to comply with what Wolf told him if he wanted to get out of there alive.

"Good." He said and turned around to face his teammates. "I can handle the rest from here, you're both dismissed. Go do whatever you want for the rest of the night, you deserve it after your work today."

Both of them nodded and left the room from the door they had entered. After a pause, Wolf looked back at Fox and crossed his arms.

"What were you doing out there alone, pup?" Wolf asked, his tone softer now that his team had left.

"I don't know what you mean." Fox replied, looking to the side as he spoke.

"I'm being clear enough. You were in Sector Y today, without your team by your side." He took out the piece of paper from his pocket and held it out so Fox could see it. "You were investigating an illegal trade there."

The captive pilot gulped, he'd been completely found out.

"It's just as you're saying, there's not much else to say. While patrolling the sector on my own, I saw the trade going on. I was found out, so I got attacked by other aircraft. I wrote the note as an attempt to give a clue to the ones who found my body." Fox sighed. "Now what, are you going to kill me? You've already got your answers."

"Do you really think I'm so ruthless? I don't kill those who cooperate with me unless I'm ordered to. I have honor too, you know?" Wolf raised one of his eyebrows. "Besides, what you're telling me doesn't make sense. If you got attacked during the trade, we would have seen it."

Now, it was Fox's turn to be confused.

" _You_?" He asked. "Why would you have seen it?"

"Because we were right there when the trade happened?" Wolf explained. "One of the companies hired us to protect them during the trade, in case something bad happened."

"No, that can't be. I would have seen you, since I kept moving around as I observed them." Fox said. "This is confusing."

"No shit, Sherlock Holmes." Wolf said sarcastically. "You're either lying, which I doubt you would dare to in your current condition, or something is going on under both of our noses."

"Maybe the trades we're talking about are completely unrelated?"

"You must be joking, pup. Two suspicious trades in the exact same location? Furthermore, since you're still alive, we can guess the time between the two trades wasn't too long." Wolf explained as he moved around the table. "Clearly, this is no mere coincidence. Do you have any other leads from your spying?"

"Well, I had a notebook where I wrote what I could gather from what I saw, but it probably got stolen as soon as they..." Fox paused, sighing and rubbing the wounds the fight had left him with. "...destroyed my Arwing."

"Did you really think you could beat them all? You were alone, pup." Wolf narrowed his eyes. "No matter how much of a hero you think you are, no matter how well people speak of you and no matter how skilled you are: You don't fight a whole group of aircraft by yourself."

"Look, I thought I could handle-"

"Oh, _really_? You thought you could handle them?" Wolf interrupted his immobilized rival, chuckling at his words. "Fucking hell, you really are childish, pup. It's almost funny how you still believe you're a hero like everyone tells you."

"It's... It's not that." Fox said, looking down as his tone was reduced to a weak whisper.

"Then what was it?" Wolf spat out the question. "Let me guess what was going through your head. 'Oh! I'm the great Fox McCloud, and I can win any fight in space! I can't let Corneria down, so I have to stop these lowly criminals instead of asking for assistance with the situation!' Grow up, pup."

"Ugh, fine! It was stupid of me to try fighting them, I know that already! I don't need someone like you reminding me of my mistakes. Do you get a kick out of ridiculing me like this?" Fox exclaimed, narrowing his eyes and clenching his shaking fists.

"Ridiculing? I'm helping you, pup. You have a lot of skill, but all the fame you've gotten because of your father has gone to your stupid head; I'm the only one who has the guts to tell you to wake the fuck up!" Wolf yelled, his face approaching Fox's. "Everyone else just tells you how great you are all the time and forgives you for any mistake you make. If you really think this is _ridiculing_ you, you should see what I do to others who cross my way; because this is nothing in comparison."

Fox McCloud's mouth shut tightly, his eyes watering from Wolf's harsh words. The worst part of all, however, was the fact that the mercenary was right; everything he had said up until then was completely true.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice breaking due to his sobbing.

"Don't be. Something like this needed to happen for you to realize that. Life has been too easy for you." Wolf said, before changing the subject. "We'll continue our conversation about the illegal trade tomorrow first thing in the morning. Understood?"

Fox nodded once he finished wiping off the tears from his face.

"Good." Wolf said unlocking the handcuffs holding Fox to the table. "If I find out you are doing anything behind our back, you'll never leave this place alive. You can sleep on this room's couch, as only I know the password to enter. If anyone other than us knew you were here, it wouldn't end up well."

Before leaving, Wolf turned around and gave Fox a small device.

"Use this in case of emergency, it will automatically call me when you press the button." He explained and turned around, strolling towards the door. "Good night... Fox."

With that said, the door closed and the room was once again left in complete darkness once more.


End file.
